SPS Smart Production Solutions was scheduled to take place as a hybrid trade fair in Nuremberg from 23 to 25 November. In view of the increasingly worsening pandemic situation in Germany and the recommendations of the RKI on prevention, several exhibitors have now cancelled their participation.
It should finally become a "normal" trade fair again, in presence and without a mask: the SPS Smart Production Solutions in Nuremberg. At least some of the announced participants will now only be seen by trade fair visitors in digital form, as they have cancelled their presence due to pandemic-related precautions. As of today (17 November), the seven-day incidence in Bavaria is 568, while the national average is 319.5 new infections per 100,000 people.
The organisers are trying to meet this challenge with an adapted hygiene concept. Last week, the precautionary Conversion of the trade fair to a 2G model (i.e. recovered or vaccinated), but still without the obligation to wear masks and social distancing. After the first public cancellations on Tuesday, Messe Frankfurt, as the organiser, tightened up the concept once again after now also with 2G detection indoors a mask which should only be removed outdoors at a sufficient distance of 1.5 metres.
Nevertheless, this concept is not sufficient for some participants. Pilz GmbH had already cancelled its physical participation on Tuesday (16 November) in view of the rising infection figures. "It is obvious that we all need to adjust our behaviour to break this corona wave. Reducing contact is an important measure," says Managing Partner Susanne Kunschert. However, Pilz GmbH will continue to take part in the trade fair in digital form.
Similar statements have so far been made by the Westphalian control technology company Beckhoff Automation, the electrical engineering company Phoenix Contact, the Turck Group, the Ratingen-based Schneider Electric Group and the electrical engineering group Wago. Siemens AG also sees a presence as too risky and instead presents in the digital space.
As recently as Tuesday evening (16 November), the Mesago Managing Director Martin Roschkowski and Vice President SPS Sylke Schulz-Metzner in a video interview with the magazine Computer & Automation, that the PLC will continue to take place physically, even if there is no way around empty exhibition spaces due to the short notice. There is no other way to manage this in the short time until the start of the trade fair.
